About this inquiry

The adequacy of arrangements to prevent the entry and establishment of invasive species likely to harm Australia's natural environment, including recent biosecurity performance and Australia's state of preparedness for new environmental incursions.

Terms of Reference

The adequacy of arrangements to prevent the entry and establishment of invasive species likely to harm Australia's natural environment, including:

recent biosecurity performance with respect to exotic organisms with the potential to harm the natural environment detected since 2000 and resulting from accidental or illegal introductions from overseas, including:

the extent of detected incursions, including numbers, locations and species, and their potential future environmental, social and economic impacts;

the likely pathways of these recently detected incursions and any weaknesses in biosecurity that have facilitated their entry and establishment;

the extent of quarantine interceptions of exotic organisms with the potential to harm the natural environment, including numbers, locations, species and potential impacts, and

any reviews or analyses of detected incursions or interceptions relevant to the environment and any changes in biosecurity processes resulting from those reviews or analyses;

Australia's state of preparedness for new environmental incursions, including:

the extent to which high priority risks for the environment have been identified in terms of both organisms and pathways, and accorded priority in relation to other biosecurity priorities,

the process for determining priorities for import risk analyses and the process for prioritising the preparation of these analyses,

the current approach to contingency planning for high priority environmental risks and the process by which they were developed,

the adequacy of current protocols and surveillance and their implementation for high-priority environmental risks,

current systems for responses to new detected incursions, the timeliness and adequacy, and the role of ecological expertise,

the extent to which compliance monitoring and enforcement activities are focused on high priority environmental risks,

the adequacy of reporting on incursions, transparency in decision-making and engagement of the community, and

institutional arrangements for environmental biosecurity and potential improvements; and